The Aditya Birla Group was founded by Seth Shiv Narayan Birla in 1857. Now chaired by Kumar Mangalam Birla, it is one of the Fortune 500 companies with massive outreach worldwide. It is a $44.3 billion corporation which is active in 14 industry sectors. However, I am not going to talk about its success in those sectors as such. My interests lie elsewhere.
First of all, I must mention that I am a biodiversity enthusiast. The fact that we are losing so many species of plants and animals every year due to our own negligence is heart-breaking to say the least. The scariest part of it is that we are in the middle of the sixth mass extinction in half-a-billion years. On an average we lose about a dozen species of plants and animals each day. The natural background rate being 5-6 species per year, the current rates are about 1000 times of it. This current scenario is almost entirely caused by human activities like global warming and habitat destruction. To top it all, we still haven’t stopped hunting them for sport either. The stressful imbalance this causes to our ecosystem is unimaginable.
The Aditya Birla Group is actively involved with the Sustainable Apparel Coalition which deals with sustainable growth, work conditions and a better planet. As per the Group Sustainable Business Report by the Aditya Birla Group, they are committed to achieving the ‘within two degrees planetary temperature increase’ that has been decided at the Conference of Parties led by the UN. India is already badly hit by the climate change with parts of the Sunderbans going underwater permanently and increasing salinity of the soil in that area. Also, there is the water crisis in Tamil Nadu and flooding in Kerala almost every year. So, the ABG has coordinated with the Indian Government to work towards the goals set by the government.
Global Warming is one of the worst players in animal extinction. The Greenhouse gas emissions is a major problem which contributes to Global Warming. Hindalco has achieved a 12% reduction in energy consumption and a 10% reduction in GHG emission in the past five years which is quite admirable. Further, Novelis, now a part of Hindalco, has made significant progress in recycling aluminium which produces 95% fewer GHG emissions. Despite increasing its overall aluminium production, Novelis has managed to reduce its GHG emissions by 25% against the baseline years 2007-2009. The other manufacturing companies under the Aditya Birla Group are also aspiring along the same lines.
To finally see some action being taken is one of the best things I have come across from this group of companies, besides the beautiful fashion line they have. The initiative by the Aditya Birla Group on Sustainable Apparel Coalition has been a great solace. To see large multinational companies coming forward to help in a sustainable development is a welcome change we all want to see.
Reference:
http://sustainability.adityabirla.com/pdf/2-degrees-Futures-Long.pdf
